bookcurios Chapter 113 Let's plant bamboo!
Chapter 113 Let's plant bamboo!
In feudal society, ordinary people were truly insignificant...
Cheng Ruoan sighed, letting out one of the few remaining moments of saintly compassion within her. She then turned serious and said to Si Shaoheng:
"When you go to the yamen to get the wine prescription from Registrar Xu, you can hand over the bone injury ointment and wound medicine in the space together with them."
In short, given the rapid rise in the prices of medicinal herbs and medicines, we won't lose money by handing these over; in fact, we'll gain reputation points.
Si Shaoheng reminded her, "Why don't you sort out another list of medicinal herbs that can be handed over? Besides using the winery permit to run a winery, don't you want to set up other workshops as well?"
Cheng Ruoan slapped his forehead, "Yes, yes, yes, yes."
Although the medicinal herbs won't spoil if stored in the space, it seems that handing them over to the imperial court in response to the tax collection is currently the best way for them to quickly gain more reputation points!
So the next day, Cheng Ruoan went to the front yard to attend class at Dr. Hu's guest room. Before the class started, she had asked Dr. Hu questions in detail.
Which of the medicinal herbs she stockpiled along the way could also be produced by Doctor Hu's medicine shop later?
Dr. Hu simply gave her a list, "These are all medicinal herbs that can be found on the old mountain, and the herb farm will only grow these in the future."
"Thank you, Master." Cheng Ruoan quickly put the form into her sleeve, and in the blink of an eye, she was about to send it into her spatial storage.
Afterwards, Cheng Ruoan even took a nap on her desk during the break between classes.
The consciousness slipped into the space and sorted through all the medicinal herbs on the list, comparing them with those it had acquired.
She put the things that Si Shaoheng could take away and hand over, along with the bone injury ointment and wound medicine, together on the coffee table and sofa in the living room.
Si Shaoheng drove his own carriage to the county town to see Registrar Xu on business. When he stopped the carriage at the side gate of the yamen, he climbed into the carriage and transferred everything to the carriage.
Then, while waiting for the yamen runner to open the side gate, he cupped his hands and announced, "Third Brother Si from Daxi Village has come to hand over the collected medicinal herbs and medicines. Please ask the yamen runner to pass on this message to Registrar Xu."
"Hey, Si Sanlang, why are you being so polite with us? Scholars are so pedantic. Just drive your carriage in and park it. Your things won't get stolen if you leave them in the backyard. I'll take you to find Registrar Xu." The yamen runner patted him on the shoulder with a smile.
Si Shaoheng smiled and took out a small piece of silver, about seventy or eighty coins, and stuffed it into his hand: "Thank you for your hard work, Brother Cha. Have some tea."
The yamen runner smiled and happily accepted the tea money. No wonder he had become Xu Zhubu's "nephew" so soon after arriving in Songshan County.
In the afternoon, Cheng Ruoan had just finished learning today's acupuncture techniques when she heard Zhang Dapeng come to the front yard and say that he and Aunt Zhang had already made and packaged the regular version of the lard ointment.
As Cheng Ruoan packed up her books and gold needles, she replied, "Okay, I'm coming."
Dr. Hu: "I don't have any new cosmeceutical formulas to try today, so I won't go. Have someone call Xin Ge'er and Niannian over later. I'll start teaching the two children their basics from today."
Cheng Ruoan nodded vigorously, "Master treats me so well. He even saved me the money for Xin Ge'er and Niannian's first tutor."
"Then what good wine does your husband have..." Doctor Hu winked at Cheng Ruoan.
Cheng Ruoan instinctively squinted at him and smiled, looking like a cunning little devil: "Leave it to me!"
Cheng Ruoan followed Zhang Dapeng to the backyard and saw the regular version of the hand cream, which was indeed packaged in a small bamboo tube as she and Dr. Hu had requested.
However, since the lard had not yet solidified, Cheng Ruoan could not pick it up to examine it. Instead, he bent over and randomly checked a few pieces on the west side table in the "production workshop".
Cheng Ruoan frowned as she looked at the bamboo tubes, which were about the same size as the small porcelain jars but not very neatly arranged. "Which shop bought these bamboo tubes from? Don't buy from this shop next time; the quality is inconsistent."
"Aunt Zhang, you've matched the blue tone of this ointment very well; it looks nice."
The lard inside the bamboo has a light green color, which complements the light blue of the bamboo core, making it look seamless and not at all cheap.
"This is the color made using the artemisia juice that you and Dr. Hu mentioned." As she spoke, Aunt Zhang said somewhat embarrassedly, "Second Miss, these bamboo tubes weren't bought. My husband and two sons sawed and polished them in the yard last night after they finished work, with the lights on."
The lighting wasn't very clear, so some rough edges might not have been cleaned properly, and the lid hasn't been made yet..."
Cheng Ruoan was taken aback: "I left you some money to buy bamboo tubes."
Aunt Zhang sighed: "Second Miss, bamboo is not abundant in the north. Most of the bamboo that bamboo merchants bring to the north is used to make boats and rafts. Bamboo tube products are quite expensive, almost as expensive as porcelain jars. I was thinking of saving you some money."
The money you'd spend on bamboo tubes would be enough to buy a whole truckload of bamboo directly from the bamboo merchant. How about we buy the bamboo ourselves and make the tubes?"
After saying that, Aunt Zhang returned the ten taels of silver to Cheng Ruoan.
"Hiss, how could I forget? We bought bamboo cheaply in Bachuan Prefecture because that's where it's from..." Cheng Ruoan held ten taels of silver in his hand, quickly did some mental calculations, and then came up with a new plan.
She handed Aunt Zhang another piece of silver, weighing about two ounces, saying, "This is your overtime pay for making these three hundred bamboo tubes last night."
Aunt Zhang, I know your family has lived in the north for more than ten years, and you know more about the big and small things here than I do.
If I provide the bamboo, can you help me find someone to make bamboo tubes? The wages are five coins per tube, but just sawing them open won't do; they need to have lids.
In addition, the rough edges must be cleaned up to prevent them from scratching your hands.
Aunt Zhang: !!!
"Yes! Of course! With such high wages, it's easy to find workers. I guarantee the bamboo tube jars they make will be much better looking than the ones my husband and son make."
Da Peng laughed and said, "Don't even mention five coins, we can find someone to do it for three coins."
Cheng Ruoan smiled and said, "I'll take the five-cent one, but the quality has to be worth the five cents."
"Sure, no problem!"
After settling things here, Cheng Ruoan returned to her own courtyard and locked the door.
Then he went into the space to tidy up the area and prepare to plant bamboo!
After the space upgrade yesterday, Cheng Ruoan noticed that the white fog outside the villa seemed to have receded considerably.
The buffer zone in front of the door is much wider now.
So when she was sleeping with her two children that night, her consciousness slipped inside and circled the villa. She discovered that the white fog behind the villa had receded even more, revealing a large expanse of land!
It's a perfectly square piece of land, ideal for farming!
The soil was exactly the same as the soil in the small plot of land in the villa's yard where she had pulled up the flowers, intending to use it to grow vegetables.
Even the shape is the same, only it looks like it's been magnified dozens of times!
Cheng Ruoan immediately ran back to the villa to check the "Courtyard - Land" option in the partition management interface of the electronic butler.
Sure enough, clicking on it brought up a different interface than before.
Because Si Shaoheng was sleeping in the study, Cheng Ruoan couldn't immediately run to the study to find him to come in and study, so she could only bite the bullet and study it herself.
Finally, I roughly understood that the "courtyard-land" inside the villa is a microcosm of the land outside the villa.
She plants one seed in the courtyard, and 100 more will automatically be planted in the surrounding land.
Originally, Cheng Ruoan only wanted to grow some fresh vegetables to eat in the courtyard during the winter.
The land had grown so much that planting just one houttuynia cordata could produce a hundred more. Cheng Ruoan was both amused and exasperated, wondering what she could grow to eat it all.
That's good, no need to worry anymore.
Plant bamboo.
As Cheng Ruoan searched for books in the study to learn about bamboo cultivation techniques, he daydreamed, "I should keep a giant panda in my villa."